25/02/2004 Interview with Chris Love- the man behind Clove Technology
1/ Tell us a bit about Clove- when and why you started up, where you want to be in 5 years time and what you stand for?
Clove Technology was started way back now in 1992. I was using palmtops (Psion) and found that there were very few companies that specialised in these products. This gave me the opportunity so Clove Technology was formed, working from a Study. Its turnover grew from £146,000 in 1993 to over £2million in 2000. We specialised in the early years with Psion and got a good reputation and a loyal customer base. The company and market have changed radically over the years with a much larger and diverse product range. Back in 1992 we were getting asked simple questions about Psion memory disks and spellcheckers, now it is more likely to be about email set up and working over WiFi or the set up of a car navigation unit. We constantly have to strive to keep ahead of product developments so the can advise our customers. The web has also dramatically transformed our business with well over 60% of our business now coming direct from the website. There is a much wider product choice for customers with a much larger range of accessories. I do not think anyone could have predicted just how far technology would take handhelds in the lat 5 years, so it will be fascinating to see what we are selling in the next five years. I do predict more PDA’s with built in GPS and telephony and when G3 services finally take off, the facilities on the new generation palmtops will be very impressive with live news updates, sports information including live picture feed and the ability to download full movies and watch on the go. One of the great benefits of our business is that it is always changing!
2/ Do you put a big empasis on customer service or have you just been lucky with who you employ? I spend a fair amount of time on PDA247 highlighting bad developers and companies who provide poor service and must say you guys are a nice exception to what seems to be the rule.
We would like to think we put a big emphasis on customer service. I think one of our advantages is that we are still relatively small so we can easily keep close contact with customers. Our staff our well motivated and enjoy the product range, which helps. Lawrence, my technical manager is superb – he certainly knows more about the products than me! We are very pleased to get good feedback from our customers and hope we can continue with this good service.
3/ Following on from question 2 would I be right in guessing that a lot of your business comes from word of mouth or repeat customers?
Our business comes from everywhere! Word of mouth, advertising, repeat customers and web searches. We like it all!
4/ What's your history with PDAs? What have you owned in the past and what do you currently use?
I started with a Psion Organiser XP and moved through all the Psion range – 3, 3a, 3mx, 5 and 5mx. I still like the 5mx keyboard and we still get strong interest in this product which we can still supply. I currently use a Sony P900 and often take a HP 2210 if I am away from the office for email etc.
5/ What, in your opinion, is the best PDA made to date?
I think the Psion 5 and 5mx were probably the best in their time. I currently think the HP2210 is the best product both from a technology point and value for money but the T3 is a superb device which runs it very close.
6/ How did you feel when Psion announced that they were going to stop making PDAs?
It was rather a shock, and to be honest we thought it could have a profound effect on our business. In reality we were able still to source many of the Psion goods – we can still supply the 5mx and the Revo! We have also found that many of our customers migrated to Palm and Pocket PC, which of course we sell. We are currently seeing very strong demand for HP Pocket PC’s and accessories, as our pricing on these is very competitive, so get your readers to check us out!
7/ Favourite song, book and film please:)
Favourite song ? I actually have many – Robbie Williams Angels would be high on the list. Book? again many I like thrillers so authors like Iain Rankin and John Grisham appeal. Films – I like thrillers and comedy – I recently saw Johnny English with Rowan Atkinson, which appealed to my warped sense of humour!
8/ What's piece of feedback about Clove sticks in your mind the most and why?
We have had many great stories along the last 12 years, from machines dropped down toilets, left on planes and sold to famous people. A very common comment when a customer has lost or broken a machine will be – but I was GOING to back it up but never go round to it. One other experience that sticks in the mind was when I was explaining to a customer how to format his machine whilst going through the required keystrokes on mine – and yes you guessed it, ended up formatting my machine which had not been backed up for about 3 weeks – I only did that one once! We have one customer who was 95 when she purchased a PDA to use to contact her family whilst she was camping in France, what a character!
9/ Do you believe that PDAs will ever become commonplace in the UK or will the SmartPhone eventually dominate?
The shipments on PDA’s increased in 2003 from previous peak in 2000. 2.6 million units were sold in western Europe in 2003 (unfortunately not ALL sold by us!) The market is growing, Smartphones will take some of this market, but many seasoned palmtop users prefer the full range of features that a standard PDA offers. We will hedge our bets and sell both.
10/ What do you love and hate the most about Bournemouth?:)
I have lived in Bournemouth all my life and love it. I can cycle on the beach front in the summer as it is only about 5mins from my house, I can also quickly get into the New Forest The night life has improved radically over the last 5-7 years with a large selection of bars, restaurants and clubs (although at 40 I now feel a little out of place in the clubs!). I spent about 5 years commuting to London before I started Clove Technology, which was awful; in fact it was a strong reason why I went ahead with setting up Clove Technology . Added – we value the opportunity to give this interview. We would hope that anyone reading this that does not know of us would take the time to visit our website at www.clove.co.uk. We are constantly improving our product range and services we offer so make sure you visit often to see the changes. The website is about to undergo further improvements to make the purchasing of our products even easier so I would love the opportunity to inform your readers when this happens and get feedback – good or bad!
Many thanks to Chris for taking the time to answer my questions- to say I cannot recommend them highly enough is a big understatement. Have dealt with Clove for years and they are annoyingly good at everything, especially customer service:)